klance
by Kiwi-Nightmare
Summary: klance
1. klance

Summary:

"This situation is a bit more complicated than we initially realized."

Lance raises an eyebrow, but Pidge is the one to question that. "Define complicated."

Allura takes no more time beating around the bush, "Well, I received a transmission. Keith and Lance--from the future, that is--would like to have their daughter back."

or: Lance and Keith deal with a walking spoiler, in the form of a little girl who just wants to get back to her own home.

Notes:Translation into Русский available:Доказательство твоей любвиbyDreamerX2

dedicated totina, because when i came to her and said "HELP ME COME UP WITH KLANCE BABY NAMES", she suggested klink and klank. because lance and keith apparently name their kids by playing scrabble.

(See the end of the work formore notes.)

Allura's the one who spots her, first.

A child, ahumanchild, on board the Castle of Lions. Dark black bangs curl just above her eyes, a deep brown, and as soon as they make contact with Allura's blue she's already turned tail and taken back off down the hallway.

Allura is quick, but the little girl is faster--especially with that head start. She disappears somewhere down a long corridor, and Allura decides that maybe they should be taking care oflocalproblems before heading down to any more planets.

They're all called to a meeting, where Allura has several video feeds of the little girl lurking around.

"How did she even getonhere?" Pidge asks, because it had been more than just a few days before any of them had docked off on any planets. "There's nothing on the feed from before today?"

"No," Allura answers, looking contemplative. "But she might have just now come out from hiding today. Perhaps she's hungry, or thirsty."

"Or maybe she's a trick," Keith says, eyeing the repeating feeds on-screen like they're a ticking time bomb seconds from detonating. Allura frowns.

"I find it unlikely that any sort of Galra trick would just be running around the castle so blatantly," she begins, "Or that it would wait so long to attack. But you're right, and we should be cautious." she pauses, looking around at each of the Paladins. "Still, though, this is a child we're talking about. If any of you run into her, I need you to be careful, butkind."

She stresses out the last word, shooting a look at Keith in particular. He glances away.

"Well then, emergency meeting dismissed. Paladins, I'd suggest everyone split up for now, and try to keep your eyes on the look-out."

Hunk is the one who finds her next. Completely byaccident, he might add, because he had decided to take a break in the kitchen to get some food-goo before he went to go on someliteralkiddie scavenger hunt.

(The kiddie scavenged him out, instead, as it happened.)

She's standing in the doorway, peeking her head around the corner, and when they make eye contact she doesn't dart away.

Hunk sort of feels like some kind of child whisperer.

"... Hey," he starts, and she freezes up for a second, looking at him in suspicion. "Are you hungry?"

She doesn't move, but he can see her visibly relax. Carefully, Hunk puts down a bowl of food goo on the table and sits down across from it.

He waits.

She stares.

And slowly,slowly, she comes forward and sits at the table.

"Sorry, it's probably not exactly tasty, but you get used to the food goo after awhile," Hunk says, voice low so he doesn't scare her off. Instead of running off, she gives him a very confused look and shovels the goo into her mouth like she hasn't eaten in forever.

"... Or, not." he says, mildly surprised as she shovels another spoonful in. He doesn't move, but she doesn't seem concerned with him anymore anyway. Hunk admits, it's been so long since he's last seen a little kid that he can't help but stare as they sit in the kitchen in silence.

Of course, he doesn't get to stare for long. There's never more than a few minutes peace with Lance around, and Lance choosesjust thento bust into the kitchen.

"Hunk! You found her!" he shouts (Lance does not know how to use a gentle, indoors-voice,), and at the sound of him the little girl's eyes go wider than Hunk even thoughtpossible. She stands up and attempts to make a dart for the exit, but Lance isjustfaster than her and he sticks his arm out, efficiently grabbing her before she runs by.

"Ha! Got--ya--" he says, pulling her to his chest so she can't make another quick dash. "Man-- if you're a Galra infiltrator you're kind-- of pathetic--Stop squirming so much!"

He's struggling to hold her still as she fights her way out of his grasp. As if on cue, but probably just attracted by the commotion, the others come in and pause in the doorway.

"Lance! Don't hurt her!" Allura snaps, and Lance gives an agitated noise, still struggling to hold her.

"I'm nothurtingher. I used to do this to all my younger siblings." he says.

They all start to move toward the two of them, and the girl takes this opportunity to clamp her teeth down into Lance's arm. He yelps and lets her go, dropping her ungracefully onto her feet, and she runs past the other Paladins to Shiro in the back. Latching onto his leg, she glares up at Lance and hides behind Shiro.

"Ow! What the-- Didn't your parents teach you not to bite?" he asks, scowling right back at her. She sticks her tongue out, before ducking back behind Shiro's leg.

Shiro's looking down at her, in a complete loss. "Uh."

When she doesn't move out from behind his leg, Allura slowly approaches and drops down to her level, squatting as she rests her arms on her knees. The rest of the Paladins keep a healthy, althought still interested, distance.

"Hello," she starts out, and does her best to give a comforting smile. The child doesn't respond. "You don't need to talk to me, but if you can understand me I'd really appreciate it if you nodded your head yes or shook your head no. Okay?"

She looks away from Allura for a moment, eyes darting toward where Keith and Lance stand next to each other. Lance is still rubbing the spot where she bit him. Slowly, she turns back toward Allura and, not making eye contact, nods.

"Excellent!" Allura says brightly, "Thank you for being honest. You seem very nice."

Biting his arm isn't exactly what Lance would call nice, but whatever. Allura continues, "Are you lost?"

The little girl chews on her lip at that question, like she's not quite sure what the correct answer is. Finally, she gives a shrug.

"... Well, okay. Maybe you're just confused." Allura gives her a sympathetic smile. Everyone else in the room is completely quiet, focused on the interaction between the two. "Can you speak at all?"

Hesitantly, she nods.

"I see! That's great. Would you mind telling us your name?"

"Cora--Corrinne."

It'sdefinitelythe first time any of them had heard her talk. Her voice wavers a little bit as the words come out.

"Corrinne?" Allura smiles when she nods. "A very pretty name. How old are you?"

"Six." Corrinne says, latching tighter onto Shiro's leg. Allura's smile falters for a moment, and Shiro clarifies--

"As in six years?"

She looks up at him and nods.

Allura stands up.

"Thank you, Hunk and Lance, for finding her." She ignores the finger guns a wink Lance throws at her, turning back to Corrinne. "I'm going to go see if I can find any signals that suggest they're looking for a very pretty, lost little girl. Would you like to come with me so that we can get you back home?"

At the wordhome, Corrinne perks up and nods, letting go of Shiro and grabbing the hand Allura offers down to her. Allura beams, nodding toward the Paladins.

"Well then, we'll be off. If anything happens, you know where to find me."

At that, Corrinne gives a slight smile for the very first time. Everyone watches as Allura leads the little girl out of the room, but not before Corrinne turns her head and gives Keith and Lance one good, long stare, hand still being held by Allura.

They all stand in silence for a good few minutes after both Corrinne and Allura exit the room, before Shiro finally speaks up.

"Corrinne?" Allura smiles when she nods. "A very pretty name. How old are you?"

"Six." Corrinne says, latching tighter onto Shiro's leg. Allura's smile falters for a moment, and Shiro clarifies--

"As in six years?"

She looks up at him and nods.

Allura stands up.

"Thank you, Hunk and Lance, for finding her." She ignores the finger guns a wink Lance throws at her, turning back to Corrinne. "I'm going to go see if I can find any signals that suggest they're looking for a very pretty, lost little girl. Would you like to come with me so that we can get you back home?"

At the wordhome, Corrinne perks up and nods, letting go of Shiro and grabbing the hand Allura offers down to her. Allura beams, nodding toward the Paladins.

"Well then, we'll be off. If anything happens, you know where to find me."

At that, Corrinne gives a slight smile for the very first time. Everyone watches as Allura leads the little girl out of the room, but not before Corrinne turns her head and gives Keith and Lance one good, long stare, hand still being held by Allura.

They all stand in silence for a good few minutes after both Corrinne and Allura exit the room, before Shiro finally speaks up.

:p


	2. klance 2(10-29 16:31:24)

"I'm gonna go ahead and follow Allura. Just to be safe rather than sorry. Coran, are you coming?"

"Of course," he replies, and they leave together. Pidge and Hunk are next--with Hunk grabbing another bowl of food goo for the road, and Pidge stating she needed check out an upgrade in her lion--and that left Keith, and Lance, alone.

"I thought you were good with kids," Keith says, looking unimpressed. Lance scowls.

"I am good with kids! I was the one who caught her!"

"Shebityou, and she was shooting you death glares the entire time."

Lance scoffs. "Excuse me? She was sendingyoudeath glares the entire time. Or maybe it was both of us. Whatever, just becauseonekid is a brat doesn't mean I'm bad with kids."

Keith rolls his eyes and heads for the door, frowning when he notices Lance following him.

"Where are you going?"

"To the training deck, where I know you're headed." he answers simply. Keith lets a small smirk play onto his lips as he scoffs.

"Fine."

By now, Lance had gotten pretty good at hand-to-hand against Keith. Keith almost always still won, but it was a lot closer now-- and a lot more intense, by the end.

At this point, Lance can't even remember why he started doing this at all. He wasn't exactly one for exerting extra effort when it wasn't required, but it probably started to try and keep up with Keith. For, you know. Their rivalry.

Yeah. "Rivalry".

(Lance can come to terms with feelings. Sometimes. It mighttakeawhile, but itcanhappen.)

Keith takes advantage of Lance's brief space-out as he gets caught up in his own thoughts, sweeps his feet out from under him and pins him to the ground. If this were a real fight, and Keith had his knife? Lance would bedead.

(That probably shouldn't be ashotas it is.)

Keith doesn't get up right away, on top of Lance and catching his breath and when their eyes meet, for a moment, Lance almost makes some kind of stupid joke just to getsomethingout there. The atmosphere was so thick, you could cut it with a knife.

Fortunately, before Lance can get out anything idiotic, Allura's voice comes over the Castle intercoms and breaks the silence.

"Paladins, please reconvene immediately."

Lance grins up at Keith, cocky smugness back. "You only won because I'm handicapped at the moment." he weakly lifts up the arm where he was bitten earlier, and Keith rolls his eyes as he stands back up.

"Get over it. The kid didn't even leave a teeth mark."

"Hey, I'll have you know that it still hurt! Jeez, dude," Lance climbs to his own feet and sends a wounded look toward Keith. Keith ignores him. "Man. I'm all gross and sweaty. Think Allura would be mad if I took a shower first--"

"No," Keith snaps, reaching over and tugging at Lance's shirt. "I am not letting this meeting get postponed just because you don't smell enough like Old Spice."

Dramatically, Lance sighs and hangs his head.

"Fine."

When they all meet back up, Allura looks…

Conflicted.

Specifically, despite the way her gaze follows Lance and Keith as they walk in together, she all-out avoids looking at them when she begins speaking.

"We might have a slight problem," she starts out, and Lance thinks Shiro might be the only one who isn't groaning internally. Theyalwaysseem to have a problem. "This situation is a bit more complicated than we initially realized."

Lance raises an eyebrow, but Pidge is the one to question that. "Define complicated."

Allura takes no more time beating around the bush, finally settling her gaze on where Keith and Lance stood next to each other. "Well, I received a transmission. Keith and Lance--from the future, that is--would like to have their daughter back."

Lance chokes on his own spit. He wheezes, thumping a fist against chest as all of the other paladins turn to face him--them, really--and, to his credit, Keith doesn't seem to react at all.

Man, what Lance would give to get inside that guy's head sometimes.

"Ex-cuse me?" Lance says, catching his breath. His eyes dart to the little girl's figure next to Allura, and she pointedly ignores his gaze, looking down at her shoes instead.

His…Daughter?

"She's from thefuture?" Pidge asks, voice both incredulous and curious. "Is that even possible?"

"It's complicated," Allura hurries out, before any more questions can be thrown at her, "I thought the technology was lost for good on Altea, but perhaps in the future we found some way to recover it. They figured out a way to contact me by transmitting a video message, but I'm afraid it's one-way only."

She moves slightly to the side, and taps a button on the ship's control panel. A blown-up image of Lance's face appears--although older. It's hard to put an exact age, but he'd probably guess 30 or so.

(Lance would probably be impressed with how well he's aged, if he wasn't already such a strange mixture of utterly confused and vaguely flustered.)

The playback starts.

"Hey," the Lance, on the screen,future Lance, begins. "So, Pidge says we can't transfer a whole lot of data this way--some technical nerd junk--"

"Hey!" a voice offscreen interjects. Future-Lance ignores it and continues,

"-- But hopefully this goes to the right place. Uh, Allura." he pauses awkwardly. "If you're getting this, that's good! I'm sure you're looking very youthful." Lance winks. "Not that you don't look youthful now. It's a joke. Anyway, so I think--Ihope, you have my daughter somewhere in the Castle of Lions. Aboutyea-high, dark hair, broody pouty face. She learned that from her other dad, big surprise there."

He's using a lot of hand-gestures to exemplify his points, and he seems cheerful enough, but his voice still sounds slightly strained. It's such a bizarre experience, watching his future-self talk, that Lance can't quite wrap his head around it.

"You'll know her if you see her. Probably the only kid around for miles--"

He's interrupted again, but this time Keith's face comes into the frame. And man, future Keith would be a sight for sore eyes if he didn't look so damn exhausted. Dark bags aside, Lance thinks his hair might even be a little bit longer than it is now--but it's tied back, so hard to tell.

"Lance, you're rambling." Future Keith says, scooting Lance over so he can be more in-frame. Despite the way he looks like he hasn't slept in days, there's no snap behind the words. Just exhaustion. "Allura. Pidge and Hunk got together a list and some instructions, soyourPidge and Hunk can recreate the device that Corrinne used to get there. If you follow them, you should be able to use it to get her back to this date." there's a pause for a moment. "Please."

He sounds so desperate, there's almost a crack in his voice. Lance has the urge to look away, but can't seem to tear his eyes from the screen.

"Pidge says we're running out of time, but Cora," Future Lance speaks up again, "If you see this, we love you! And we miss you, and--"

"Be good." Keith cuts in. "We'll see you again soon."

And for the first time since he's been on the screen, future Keith smiles. "Love you, Cora."

The transmission ends.

No one says anything for what Lance feels is an entire eternity. Corrinne sniffles, and shuffles behind Allura's dress to hide it. Lance sneaks a look at Keith, because he's been weirdly quiet this entire time--and oh.

He was red. Really red, like the color of his jacket or his lion, and chewing on his lip like he always does. He's so red it almost makesLancestart to flush.

Shiro is the first to break the silence.

"Did the instructions come through?" he asks, and Lance is glad that Shiro is the voice of all reason because he really, really doesn't have any words himself right now. Allura nods.

"Thankfully, yes. Though looking at it--it looks very complex. This might take a while, not to even mention that some of these components needed to make it may take us several Earth-weeks to obtain."

"I bet we can do it," Pidge says, tapping Hunk on the back. "I mean, then both KeithandLance will owe me big-time. Even if it's just future me, and that's totally worth it."

She sends them both a teasing grin, but neither of them are in the mood. Hunk nods, dragging the attention back to he and Pidge.

"I just don't ever want to see Keith like that again," Hunk replies. "Never thought I'd be building a time-machine to take Keith and Lance's daughter into the future, though..."

"Well, I'd have bet you'd never thought you'd be on a flying ship with giant robotic lions, either!" Coran interjects. Hunk nods again, thoughtfully this time.

"I mean. You aren't wrong there."

Allura clears her throat.

"Anyway. If you two will take a look at the instructions, I can set our destination for the nearest planet that has some of the items on the list." she nods toward Hunk and Pidge, before turning her attention back to Corrinne. "We'll get you home soon, okay?"

Corrinne nods, and Lance thinks he sees her wipe at her eyes like she's hiding tears. His heart hurts a little, for her--missing home is something he can relate to--but before he can think any further on it a hand pats his shoulder.

"Well, congrats, you two!" Coran says, cheerfully, and Lance feels his face go red as he realizes Coran's other hand is on Keith's shoulder. They're still standing next to each other. "Isn't it neat to know what the future has in store?"

Not really, is all Lance can think as he can't even bring himself to look at Keith.I thinksomethings should be left as a surprise.

Corrinne sleeps with Allura in her room that night. She really onlytalksto Allura, besides to answer direct questions--and even then, the little girl usually just nods or shakes her head. She isn't very talkative. Lance doesn't know whether it's from her being shy, or just from so much happening in one day.

Despite the fact that this is possibly the weirdest situation he's ever been in, and probably no one else will ever experience, Lance finds himself sort of… Fascinated by her. He'd probably try and talk to her, if she didn't constantly act like she was totally freaked out just by thepresenceof either Keith or Lance. Allura tries to get her to come out of her bedroom for dinner, but apparently, she just shakes her head.

"I think she's a bit shaken up," Allura explains, over dinner, as she sets aside a bowl of goo for Corrinne. "She went through a lot today, but I'm sure she'll open up more tomorrow."

Besides that, their dinner is eaten mostly in quiet. Without Lance to be noisy, the tension is thick and everyone else seems deep in thought. (If you had told Lance a week ago that having a kid on board the ship would have made thingsquieter, he would have never believed you.)

A couple of times, Lance thinks he sees Keith look over at him--but everytime he looks up, Keith's gaze is elsewhere.

Finally, Keith finishes and excuses himself early, and Lance heads to bed.

Neither of them talk about it.

Pidge always stays up late--and, not that she would tell anyone this (especially not Shiro) but sometimes doesn't even sleep at all. It's not a big deal.

Some people need more sleep, some people need less, and some people are just completely screwed up. Pidge falls in that last category. Hey,it happens.

The screen of her computer lights up her face in the dark as she looks over the instructions for the device to send the kid back home. Some of it makes sense, some of it seems totally foreign, but she'd figure it out. She always did.

Pidge always stays up late--and, not that she would tell anyone this (especially not Shiro) but sometimes doesn't even sleep at all. It's not a big deal.

Some people need more sleep, some people need less, and some people are just completely screwed up. Pidge falls in that last category. Hey,it happens.

The screen of her computer lights up her face in the dark as she looks over the instructions for the device to send the kid back home. Some of it makes sense, some of it seems totally foreign, but she'd figure it out. She always did.

Not to mention, she at least has Hunk to bounce ideas off of.

Pidge doesn't look up from her screen until she hears a fainttap-tap, the unmistakable sound of someone who isn't wearing shoes approaching. She looks up, half expecting to see Lance--he walks around sometimes at night, it wouldn't bethatunusual--but instead almost has a heart attack at the child that's peering at her from the darkness.

"Holyshit," she starts, grasping at her chest. It's like a scene from the fuckingShining. Belatedly, she realizes maybe she shouldn't cuss around the little girl. Oh well, too late now.

Corrinne doesn't get any closer, or walk away. She just shifts her weight from one leg to the other, bouncing around like she's nervous. Horror-movie vibe officially ruined.

"Uh," Pidge starts, because she should probably say something, at least. "Aren't you supposed to be in Allura's room? Asleep?"

She stops fidgeting so much when she hears Pidge's voice, and gives a little nod.

Pidge stares at her for a few more seconds, before shrugging and turning back to her computer. What was shesupposedto do, yell at her to go away? She didn't know this kid from adam. … But. This kid probably knows her, Pidge realizes. And yeah, maybe she's not really the best person with children, but… She isn'theartless.

Corrinne is still standing there, hands clasped in front of the little pink nightgown that Pidge can only guess Allura gave her. Where the hell the princess got it, she doesn't know, but that's a detail that can wait for later.

"... You can come sit down, if you want."

Pidge doesn't know if she was waiting for the invitation, but Corrinne scurries over and sits, cross legged on the floor, just far enough away from Pidge that they aren't touching, but close enough that she can see the work she's doing. Pidge raises an eyebrow. This can't be interesting to watch, especially not for a six year old.

… Well, it's not like there's much else to do at this time of night. Pidge shrugs it off and continues working.

"... Your hair is short," Corrinne mutters quietly. Pidge turns toward her in surprise, because that's maybe the longest sentence she's uttered since she came aboard.

Also… It's an interesting one.

"How long is it usually?" she asks, because she isn't sure if the kid has a basic grasp on time-travel or not, but she'll assumenotand avoid saying things like "yourPidge". The little girl's gone through enough confusion for one day.

Corrinne gestures toward her own shoulders, tapping them gently, and Pidge hums. It's about where Corrinne's hair falls, too.

Not as long as it was before, but longer than now. Thatispretty interesting.

"Cool," Pidge says, because she doesn't really know what else to say. Corrinne nods, and then they sit in silence again.

Pidge is the one to break the silence, a few minutes later, because she's already lost her focus and-- if Corrinne was deciding to be talkative, she might as well milk it and find out what she can.

"Do you know where you are?" she asks her, because she genuinely doesn't know if the kid has any kind of awareness about the situation at all. Corrinne nods.

"Castle-ship."

Not quite the answer Pidge was looking for, but… Not wrong, either, and it's good to know she at least knows what she'son. Still, though. "That's not what I meant. I mean…" how to word this. "Time wise."

Corrinne's nose scrunches up in confusion for a moment, before a look of realization crosses her face. Pidge watches this with mild amusement-- maybe she doesn't really have any of Keith'sfeatures, (or Lance's either, for that matter,) but there's no way he could deny this kid when the faces she pulls lookjust like him.

"Um, in the past?"

"Hey, good job," Pidge responds, and that gets a little smile out of Corrinne. Okay, so maybe kids weren't so bad after all. Or maybe it's just this one in particular. "How'd you know that?"

The smile falters from her lips, and Pidge immediately feels bad. "Um… Uh, Uncle Hunk built a machine, and I wanted to go back, to, um, when I was on Earth. To get a present for Papa, but um, uh, I messed up and um. I can't go back, and I think I'm gonna be in big trouble."

Her voice trembles a little bit at that last part, lip pouting a little bit. Pidge stares, wide-eyed, because if she starts crying like she did earlier, Pidge might actually die.

"Uh, hey! Hey, don't look so sad! I bet you won't be in trouble at all. I bet that your Dads just… Really miss you."

Corrinne looks up at her with a sniffle, blinking back tears. "Really?"

"I'm sure," Pidge says, even though she has no way of knowing. But shedoesknow current Lance and Keith, and there's no way they could yell at a kid this cute until they cried.

No way.

Suddenly, she's being hugged. Little arms wrap around her beneath her shoulders, and she's so surprised Pidge doesn't even think to hug back. The embrace is gone just as suddenly as it's there, and Corrinne is back on her feet.

"Um, I gotta go back to bed now," she says, rubbing at an eye, and it's hard to tell in the dark but Pidge thinks her face might be a little red.

Ohyeah, definitely Keith's child. Pidge gives a little wave as Corrinne darts back down the hall toward Allura's room.

Lance knows he's gotta bring it up to Keith. He'sgotta, because there's a little girl walking around the castle all guarded and quiet, like someone somehow grabbed Keith's attitude and ported it directly into a smaller body.

But, still. It's… A unique situation. And sometimes,sometimes, it's easier to just avoid the issue. Yeah, Lance knows that's not the right thing to do, but it sure is easy when the issue is avoiding him right back.

(Boththe issues, actually. Keith isn't theonly onewho's watching him carefully, but looking away when he notices and tries to make eye contact.)

After another silent and awkward meal over breakfast, though, Lance knows he can't take it anymore. Actually, it might even be a problem if they try and form Voltron--and Shiro hasn't said anything to him yet, but he knows it's just a matter of time. The only thing that makes the breakfast bearable at all is the fact that Allura and Coran are chatting normally, and he thinks he maybe sees Corrinne smile at Pidge.

(He hasnoidea what he missed there.)

So Lance resolves himself to go talk to Keith. For, you know, the team.

And also, maybe it kind of really sucks to have Keith avoid him like this.

Lance finds him in his room, because Keith is never that hard to find. If he isn't in the training deck, or polishing up his lion, he's in his room. He's like a programmed NPC from a 90s video game.

:p


	3. klance 3

"Hey," Lance says when Keith opens up his door at the knocking, and his face goes from neutral to neutral-but-slightly-distressed, because Keith isn't as good at hiding his emotions as he thinks he is. "We should talk. About the… Thing."

Keith raises an eyebrow as he steps aside, an unspoken invitation for Lance to come in.

"The thing." he replies, leaning up against the wall next to the door. Lance stands across from him.

"Yeah. Thething."

Keith rolls his eyes. "Did you just call it a "thing"?"

"You just called it an "it"!"

"So did you! Just now!"

Lance pauses to suck in a dramatic breath. He'd watchedexactlythe right amount of daytime soap-operas to know how to handle this situation appropriately.

"You need to take responsibility." his voice is confident, unwavering, sexy. All adjectiveshejust came up with, of course.

Instead of being impressed, Keith looks like he can't believe the words that just came out of Lance's mouth.

"What-- I-- Why doIhave to take responsibility?" is what he finally decides on, after stumbling over his words a few times. Lance scoffs.

"Uh, 'cause she walks around like you and is all quiet like you and moody and broody, just like you get sometimes?Duh."

"I don't get moody and broody!" Keith argues back. Lance rolls his eyes.

"Oh, please. You can't deny she totally acts like you."

Keith's face is rapidly getting more red, and Lance doesn't know if it's out of frustration or embarrassment. "You were the one on the video for most of the time!Youtake responsibility!"

"Keith, a man can't make a child on his own."

Keith splutters. "She obviously-- We didn't-- Lance, neither of usgave birthto her."

"Weird things happen in space." he replies, levelling a very serious gaze at Keith. Keith runs his hands through his hair and groans.

"Lance."

"You should never rule out any possibilities--"

"Get out of my room--"

"Anything is possible."

"She doesn't look like either of us!" Keith throws his hands up, in a very Lance-like dramatic gesture. Lance feels a bit of pride in that. Good to know he's rubbing off on everyone. "Lance, leave."

"Fine!" Lance says, turning on his heel and moving toward the door. For extra flair, just before he exits he whips around and says, "But I'm coming after you for child-support!"

The door shuts on him.

Well, it could have gone… Worse.

At least the tension between them was broken.

Corrinne gets comfortable enough that they stop clinging to Allura all the time, and start following Pidge around sometimes.

Pidge isn't exactly sure how she feels about that, but at least the kid isn't annoying. Mostly, she's just kind of… There.

She and Hunk are making a list of the things they can pick up from the next planet when the unmistakeable sound of small footsteps approaching makes them both pause. Corrinne stops just behind the couch they're sitting on, her eyes just barely visible over the back of the couch as she stands on her tiptoes.

Hunk's eyes dart to her, and then to Pidge, trying to communicate a question with his eyes. Pidge only shrugs in response.

"... Hi," Hunk finally says, turning his full attention to the little girl peeking over the couch. She gives a small, shy wave. "Did you need something?"

She shakes her head.

Pidge's eyes meet hers, and-- Oh man, she was cute. Relenting, Pidge pats the seat next to her, and Corrinne's eyes light up, just a little bit.

What Pidge expects to happen, is that she'll walk around the couch and plant herself down, quietly. What shedoesn'texpect, is how Corrinne decides that that just must betoo much work, hoists herself up onto the back of the couch, loses her balance and promptly face-plants right into the couch cushions.

Pidge and Hunk both stare, wide-eyed, as the little girl sinks further into the cushions before lifting herself up, dazed look on her face. Pidge is afraid she might burst out into tears, or something--but before she can even get out a "are you okay,", the surprised look on Corrinne's face turns to a smile--

Which turns into a very light giggle.

Hunk and Pidge watch in stunned amazement as Corrinne's nose crinkles up, eyes squinting as she laughs at her own clumsiness. GoodLord, she even lets out a littlesnort.

"Oh myGod," Hunk whispers, as if she's not sitting right there and totally capable of hearing him anyway. "That's the most adorable thing I've ever seen."

She stops giggling to give him a little grin, fluttering her eyelashes. Pidge gapes, not even trying to hide her amusement.

"Oh no, this girl isdangerous," she says, nudging Hunk and grinning. "Look at that. Sheknowsshe's cute."

Corrinne only gives them both an innocent grin.

Caught up in the little girls antics, neither of them noticed the other footsteps growing closer--or even, somehow, the voices associated with them until Keith and Lance were standing in the entryway of the common room, bickering. Corrinne presses herself down into the cushions again, obviously trying to disappear from Lance and Keith's line of sight.

"Pidge!" Keith's voice shouts, from across the room. She almost jumps at his tone.

"What?"

"Tell Lance that I don't owe himchild supportfor our child, that isn't even born yet in this time!"

Pidge scrunches up her nose. "Don't bringmeinto your weird fights."

Lance rolls his eyes so hard Pidge can almost hear it. "Hunk, tell Keith that--"

"Uh-uh." Hunk shakes his head. "Nope, I don't want in on your lover-quarrels either."

"You've officially been dropped five points on my bro list."

"I'm picking up ingredients for dessert when we stop at the next planet."

"You've officially just raised five points on my bro list."

Keith scoffs, taking the opportunity to walk away while Lance is distracted with Hunk. Lance follows after him when he notices, ("Hey, I wasn't done talking yet!") and the nuisance is gone just as quickly as it arrived.

Pidge looks down at Corrinne.

"It's safe to come out now."

She sits back up, frown on her face now and pouty brown eyes look way sadder than they probably had a right to. Pidge tips her head.

"What's wrong?"

"Um," Corrinne starts, "Papa and Daddy, um… Seemed really mad at each other."

Hunk blinks. "Aw, I think Keith was just annoyed, not mad."

This does not make Corrinne any happier. Pidge frowns.

"Wait, which one is'Papa'and which one is'Daddy'?"

Corrinne picks at her nails. "Papa is Papa and Daddy is Daddy," she replies, simply. Pidge wonders if it's okay to give children sarcastic, flat stares.

"You don't know their first names?"

"Oh." she says, then nods. "Papa's name is Lance. Daddy's name is Keith."

"Well," Hunk says, in another attempt to brighten the mood, "I'm sure they won't be arguing for long. Their arguments never last!" he pauses for a moment, before tacking on, "... Would anyone like ice cream-flavored food goo?"

Corrinne makes a little gasp. Hunk grins.

"I'll just be in the kitchen…" he starts, and before he can even finish the sentence she's hopped off the couch and racing toward the kitchen.

"Good job, Uncle Hunk," Pidge teases after she exits the room. Hunk laughs.

"Hey, man, whatever. I was just craving some ice cream."

Lance is pretty surprised to see Corrinne sitting at the dining room table in the dead middle of the night, head down in her arms on the smooth surface. It isn't unusual forhimto be walking around at this time of night, but usually the only other person who's up is Pidge.

(He always appreciates that she doesn't ask questions about it.)

He thinks the little girl is asleep--maybe she snuck out of Allura's room to get something to drink and just crashed right here on her way back?--but when he attempts to sneak past her, quietly, he hears a very quiet sniffle.

He freezes, straining his ears. Sure enough, there's another faint sniff. It's hard to tell, considering how dark it is, but he thinks he sees her shift a little bit.

She isn't asleep. She'scrying.

The realization hits Lance hard. There's a little girl, not three feet away from him, up way past her bedtime and crying silently at a table. That's like a heart-break bingo right there, not even to mention the fact that she's… Apparently, his daughter from the future.

(It's still a little hard to wrap his mind around that one.)

"... Hey." he says, voice barely above a whisper so he doesn't startle her. Corrinne still jerks her head up anyway, wiping at her eyes to clear the tears as she focuses on him. He approaches her, slowly, and is almost shocked when she doesn't run away from him.

"Can I sit here?" he asks, gesturing toward the chair next to her. She blinks at him a few times, before giving him a shrug.

"That's not really an answer," Lance points out. She sniffles again, then nods.

So he pulls the chair out, and sits.

Neither of them say anything. That's not surprising on her end so much as it is his, but contrary to popular belief Lance is entirely capable of reading the mood and choosing not to say anything. He just… Doesn't, most of the time.

Corrinne rubs at her eyes, and he doesn't know if it's out of tiredness or her trying to hide more tears. He takes the opportunity to speak up.

"Sometimes I walk around here at night, when I start thinking about home. It's quiet and I always remember things better when I'm moving around." he pauses. "I miss Earth a lot."

She listens to him silently, not saying anything for a few ticks.

"... I've been to Earth."

He looks at her, grin splitting across his face. "Oh yeah? Wanna tell me about it?"

She smiles back, hesitantly, and nods. "Umm, I've been there a lot. We go back to visit, and um… We visit the beach."

Lance's happiness at her words is genuine--not just him showing interest for the sake of calming a child down, but real joy runs through him when he thinks about the implication that hedoesget to go back to Earth. Multiple times, to see his family again.

(Withhis family.)

"Are you a good swimmer?" he asks, and she nods excitedly, any sadness she had earlier seemingly gone.

"You always say I'm like a fish! Umm, but you're a good swimmer too, so that makes you a fish too. A bigger fish! We go surfing while Daddy watches, and then we get to bury him in the sand and make a sand castle on top of him." she pauses for a moment, and Lance is kind of surprised that she's opening up so easy. Just ten minutes ago, he'd never heard her say more than five words at a time.

"Sounds like a lot of fun," he says, and tries not to sound too wistful-- at least he knows he has something to look forward to. She looks at him, tipping her head.

"Don't worry. You'll get to see someday too." she reaches over, and pats the side of his arm. It's oddly comforting, even if he has to bite back a laugh when she does it.

"Pff.. Thank you Corrinne."

"Cora. You always call me Cora."

Lance blinks. "Okay then, Cora. Thanks."

She gives him a little thumbs-up and a lopsided grin, before pausing for a moment. She looks like she's contemplating--before she extends her arm out toward him, right hand balled into a fist.

It takes a minute to process, before he realizes that she's trying to give him a fistbump.Holy crap, this is the coolest kid ever.

Her face lights up again when he bumps his fist against her outstretched one, and hecannot believehis future self taught his kid to fistbump. Well, hecan, but it's still awesome.

She yawns and rubs at her eyes again, and Lance is feeling it too this time. He reaches over to ruffle her hair.

"Ready to go back to bed, kiddo? I can walk you to Allura's room." he props his head up on the palm of his hand, frowning when her previous smile faltered a bit. "What's up?"

"Um," she says.

And then she mumbles something so quietly he can't even hear it in the silence of the abandoned dining room.

"Huh?" he asks, and she rubs at her cheeks. He thinks maybe they're turning red.

"Um," she says, a little louder this time. "Um. When I, um. Can't sleep, you sometimes would… Um… Let me sleep with you and Daddy…"

Lance's mouth opens--then closes--then opens again. He could do that. He used to sleep with his younger siblings all the time-- to be honest, he kind of missed the companionship.

"Okay," he says, nodding. Hopping off of the chair, he holds out his hand toward her. "Would thelovelyCora grace my hand by allowing me to help her up and lead her to the proper room, then?"

Giggling, she takes his hand and follows him down the hall.

Lance is woken up by a very loud banging at his door, and as soon as he opens his eyes he knows it iswaytoo early to be up. A glance at the clock next to his bed confirms this; it isn't evencloseto time for breakfast yet.

He has half a mind to ignore the banging, but then he hears Keith on the other side yell "Lance, wake up!". Being mindful of the six year old in his bed, he carefully gets up and answers the door, blinking blearily.

"Lance--!"

"Shh." Lance interrupts him, putting his finger to his lips becauseseriously. Who's even that loud at this hour. Keith scowls.

"Don't shh me, Allura's waking everyone up-- Corrinne is missing--!"

"Shh!" he says, a little louder this time, stepping aside and gesturing toward his bed. Keith's eyebrows furrow in confusion, but he steps inside and follows Lance's gaze to--

Corrinne, safe and sound and very much asleep. In Lance's bed.

"Oh," he says, voice lowered. "Why is she inhere?"

"Because last night we bonded, and she couldn't sleep so she asked if she could sleep with me." Lance answers, looking smug. "What,jealous?"

"No!" Keith bristles, crossing his arms in front of him. "You should have said something to Allura, she's got everyone freaking out--"

"Including you, I see." Lance grins. "Well, I'll have you know she is safe and sound, and she came tomefor her problems."

Okay, not really. More like Lance just happened to find her. But still, he got her to open up to him and that has to count forsomething.

Keith scowls. "So?"

"So,I'mthe better par--"

He's cutting off by a groaning noise, coming from his bed. Keith and Lance turn their attention onto Corrinne, who's sitting up, hair wild and pillow held in front of her.

"Neither of you is better!" she whines, sounding exasperated--and Lance wonders if that's an argument that comes up a lot. "We all said no more arguing over that! Not even as a joke!"

They blink at her as she rubs sleep from her eyes, watching as the realization of where she is slowly dawns over her. Turning red, she hops off the bed and shuffles past them.

"Cora--" Lance starts, but she shakes her head.

"Gonna go find 'Lura. Bye."

And she's gone. Keith and Lance stare at the door after it shuts.

Lance is the first to break the silence. "... Do you really think we argue about that?"

Keith gives him a flat stare.

Corrinne is surprisingly more animated than she first seems.

A lot in the same way Keith is, actually, Lance realizes as he watches them over breakfast. His eyes flick back and forth, watching the way their facial expressions seem to mirror each others.

At some point, he just settles on watching Keith react as he talks to Shiro, until Pidge kicks his leg under the table.

"Ow!"

"If you're going to stare at him like that, at least take a picture. It'd last longer." she snorts.


	4. klance 4

Logically, Lance knows that he's annoying the everloving shit out of Keith. He knows that he's being over-the-top and ridiculous, because that's what he's good at. Not over-the-top and ridiculous like Mr.I'm-Gonna-Run-Directly-Into-This-Fight-Because-I-Think-I-Can-Take-On-The-Entire-World, but in a different way.

(At least Lance isawareof it.)

There's a special phenomenon that happens when you grow up with five other siblings: you learn to get attention, by any means possible, and old habits? They die hard!

(He may be a natural flirt, but Keith wouldn't take his flirting seriously anyway-- which is a problem he hasenoughof, thank you very much.)

But Lance knows this can't keep going on. Even if annoyed attention is better than no attention, that's not…

That's not the way he wants this to work out.

"Keith," he says, finding the other Paladin in the kitchen area with a cup in his hand. Keith arches an eyebrow at Lance, wiping whatever weird alien liquid he was just drinking off his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Yeah?"

Lance can't pinpoint the exact moment that he realized he had… a….Crush, on Keith. And he's spent alotof time thinking about it, trying to figure it out. He was just short of making some kind of Keith-level conspiracy theory think board just to plot this out. The closest he can ever seem to get is that their original "rivalry" was fueled by jealousy on his end, which turned into admiration, which turned into…

Whatever was making him want to launch himself at Keith and kiss him hard and aggressive. And also soft and slow. And every variation of that in-between, too!

Withtongue.

Oh, yeah. This is bad.

"Keith," he repeats, again, for good measure. "We have to talk. And no, not about child support."

Well,kind ofabout child support. Lance probably wouldn't be tackling this head-on right now if it weren't for the confirmation that they, apparently, in the future, like each other so much that they adopt a kid together. And go back to Earth together, where they play on the beach. Together! And sleep in the same bed together and yeah, if that's not confirmation that Keith likes him back thensomeonein the future is living a lie.

(That's sort of a depressing thought, so he moves on.)

Keith squints at him, sort of looking like he's bracing himself for something stupid to come out of his mouth. Ha, well, jokes on him because Lance was about to drop a bombeven better.

"I like you."

And there it was, out in the open. The ball has been served and is now in Keith's court. Out of Lance's hands. The match is tied--Wait, no, this isn't about points. Maybe he shouldn't have thought about the tennis analogy.

Keith looks around the kitchen like he expects Pidge to pop out of the cabinet or something with a camera. When he realizes it's not a prank, he focuses back on Lance and frowns.

"Oh," he says. "For how long?"

That's not really the reaction Lance was anticipating, which means that all of his practicing in front of his mirror was fornothing. There wasn't even any immediateswooning. Lance's mouth opens and closes like a fish.

"I--" Lance starts, "Don't know? Awhile?" Possibly even longer than he initially thought. He has a distinct memory of checking out Keith's ass multiple times when they first started training together. His subconscious knew before he did, apparently. "Wait, you're at least supposed to be surprised!"

Keith blinks. "There's a little girl from the future walking around this ship that calls us Daddy and Papa and I'm supposed to be surprised youlikeme?"

Okay, well, point taken. If Lance wanted a better reaction, he should have done this a week ago.

"I mean, Iguess." Lance crosses his arms in front of his jacket and shrugs his shoulders. "Wait, so do you like me back?"

"Yeah," Keith says, keeping his voice level and matter-of-fact despite the the increasing redness in his face.

"For how long?" Lance parrots Keith's own question back to him. Keith looks down at his palm and counts on his hands.

"Uh… Seven months," he says, with confidence. Lance's jaw drops.

"Seven--You liked me for seven monthsand never told me?"

"I didn't know if you liked me back!" Keith says, throwing his arms up. "Youdidn't even know if you liked me back! I wasn't going to say something!"

An awkward silence rolls over the kitchen after that, as Lance processes all this new information.

"Oh." he finally says, in response. "Yeah. I mean. Yeah, true."

"Yeah," Keith says back.

It's still awkward.

"I've gotta go train with Shiro." Keith finally says, and Lance isprettysure he's lying because Shiro was lounging on the couch earlier when Lance walked by. Keith moves toward the exit as Lance frowns.

"Wait, we were having a… A feelings conversation!"

"Bye," Keith says, and then he leaves.

Lance stands there, alone in the kitchen, and wonders what the hell even just transpired.

Keith was prepared for aliens. Keith believed bigfoot was real. In a world where nothing was impossible, where Keith flew around in agiant metal blue lion, nothing ever really took him by surprise.

However,

Nothing could have ever possibly prepared him for the sight of Shiro sitting across from his daughter, who arrived from the future andvery much should not exist yet, clapping their hands together to a rhythm that they were both singing out loud.

"Down by the banks of the Hanky-Panky,

Where the bullfrogs jump from bank-to-banky--"

"--Aw, crud." Shiro laughs as he messes up the pattern and throws the two of them off. Corrinne giggles.

"It's okay. Let's try again!"

Shiro lifts his hands up to retry, but notices Keith standing there out of the corner of his eye and turns to look at him. Corrinne follows his gaze.

"Keith," he says, by way of greeting. His eyes flicker from him to Corrinne, and Keith can practically see the gears turning in his head. "Hey, Corrinne, why don't we let Keith try?"

It had been a few days since Corrinne's untimely arrival, and she was slowly--but surely-- reaching out to the other Paladins, spending time with all of them. She wasn't exactly a trouble-maker, so Allura didn't feel the need to assign someone to her at all times, but she did have a habit of sneaking around. As long assomeoneknew where she was, it was fine.

The only person she hadn't spent any time with was Keith.

"I don't really know how to do play." Keith said, automatically, because it was true. Shiro arches an eyebrow.

"Corrinne is a good teacher. I bet you'll get the hang of it." he says, standing up and motioning toward the spot across from her. Keith sighs. There was no way he was going to get out of this one.

He sits down, cross legged across from Corrinne, and stares at her.

She stares back.

Shiro watches.

"... Hey, Corrinne," the older Paladin starts, breaking the silence. "Show Keith the first moves like you did me."

"Oh," she averts his gaze down, and then back up at Keith. "Okay. Um, hold your hand out like this…"

She goes through the movements, instructing him through each step before adding the lyrics onto it.

Keith is a surprisingly fast learner, for someone who didn't want to do this in the first place.

"Down by the banks of the hanky-panky,

Where the bullfrogs jump from bank to banky,"

they chant, together. She adds on another verse as he starts to get the hang of it, and the rhythm speeds up.

"With a heeps, hops, soda pops,

Hey Mr. Lilly and he went kerplops,

With a cherry on top."

Keith is so focused on not messing up that he doesn't notice the small crowd gather around as Allura and Coran take notice, and Hunk and Pidge follow.

"Here comes Noah walking in the dark,

steps on a hammer and builds the ark,"

Lance is the last to stop in, noticing everyone in the room as he passes by. He steps in and opens his mouth to ask, but Hunk puts a hand on his shoulder and points to Keith and Corrinne. Lance gapes as they speed up evenmore.

"Here comes animals two by two,

Hippopotamus kangaroo,

Kaboom on you."

They're only getting faster the farther they go on, and Keith can't help the smile on his face when he glances up for a second and sees Corrinne so focused that her tongue is sticking out. He nearly messes them up by watching her.

"Deep in the jungle where nobody knows,

There's a big fat gorilla picking his nose,"

Everyone is totally mesmerized by the clapping. At the speed they're going at, it's almostimpossibleto look away.

"And he picks, picks, flicks, and it lands you--

Kaboom!"

At the last word, Corrinne lungs forward and presses her index finger to Keith's forehead. He stares at her, confusion all over her face as she giggles.

"I wiped the gorilla's booger on you!" she clarifies, "So I won and you lost!"

Lance busts out laughing.

"Wait, you didn't tell me about that!" Keith says, eyebrows furrowing as Lance reaches over and gives her a fist bump. She shrugs.

"Umm, well, you're just s'posed toknow."

"I want a rematch." Keith says, crossing his arms. She giggles, but before she can agree Allura cuts in.

"Wait! I'd like to learn this game too." she says, smiling sweetly. "Perhaps we should all take turns?"

Corrinne taps her chin as Keith pouts silently to himself. "Um, actually we could all play it together! If we all sit in a circle."

Allura's eyes practically sparkle. "Oh, excellent! Everyone, get in a circle. This will be great for a bonding exercise."

Everyone moves to create a circle on the floor, with Corrinne squeezing herself firmly in between Keith and Lance. She holds out her palms face-up on either side, and everyone else follows. She rests her hands on Keith and Lance's palms.

"Um, I can start! All you had to do is hit the next person's palm as it speeds up. The first person who messes up the timing is out. Ready?"

Everyone nods. She claps Lance's palm and starts,

"Down by the shores of the hanky-panky,

Where the bullfrogs jump from bank-to-banky…"

It's a few days later when Lance is woken up by a knocking on his door, followed by the sound of choked crying.

He fumbles to the door in a confused panic, because what thehell, when it slides open and he sees Corrinne. Tears down her face, she rubs at her eyes and gives another pathetic sniffle.

"Cora? What's wrong?" he crouches down, moving a hand to wipe a stray tear from her face. "Cora--"

She practically throws herself at him, wrapping her small arms around his neck and burying her face in his shirt. She starts crying again, probably getting snot all over his pajama shirt, but he can't find it in himself to care.

"Hey, shh, it'll be okay." he says, rubbing her back. "It'll be okay. Did you have a bad dream?"

She sniffles, shaking in Lance's arms. He thinks he feels his heart break, a little.

"...nt Daddy," she mumbles, words muffled by Lance's shirt. He frowns.

"What?"

"Want Daddy," Cora repeats. She pulls her head out of his shirt, but her fingers cling tighter. He nods, wrapping his arms around her and lifting her up.

"Daddy-- Oh, yeah, okay. We can go see Keith."

She's light. It's been so long since he last had to carry a child anywhere that he had forgotten what it was like, to hold someone so much smaller than you. She buries her face into his shoulder as he walks down the hall and knocks on Keith's door, holding her up with one arm.

He doesn't take long to answer. Lance isn't surprised; he knows Keith is a light sleeper. Still, he looks slightly groggy as he takes in the scene before him, Corrinne's sniffling face hidden from his sight.

"What…" he rubs at his eye. "Lance? What's going on…"

"She asked for you," he says, not feeling the need to state that she was crying so hard she was gasping for breath just a few minutes ago. He adjusts her slightly, moving her up, and she clings onto him harder in response.

"Cora," Lance says, softly. "Keith is here. Do you want me to put you down?"

She shakes her head violently. Keith sighs and runs a hand through his bedhead.

"Just come in," he says, stepping aside. He closes the door behind Lance and sits down on his bed. Lance follows, hoping that maybe feeling the bed will cause Corrinne to unattach herself from his shirt.

"What happened?" Keith asks, voice low, and Lance shrugs the best he can with a child koala-clinging to him.

"I don't know. Maybe a bad dream. My siblings always came to me with those," he says. Carefully, he attempts to get her to let go of him again. She finally loosens her grip, turning to bury her face into Keith's shirt this time. He looks down at her, in shock, and then looks up at Lance with pleading eyes. If this had been any other situation, it would have been kind of funny.

"D-Don't go."

Keith blinks down at her as she sniffles, looking up to meet his gaze. He frowns, confused.

"Go… Where?"

"Away." she says, and then the tears start rolling down again. Keith panics.

"I'm not going anywhere," he says, carding a hand through her dark hair while sending Lance desperate looks. Lance only shrugs in confusion. "I'm… Right here, Cora."

Her shoulders shake. "Papa too?"

"Right here." Lance replies. She twists around in Keith's lap, like she's making sure that he wasn't lying somehow. She lets out a sniffle, and then a nod when their eyes meet.

"S-Stay here."

He can't tell if it's a request, or a demand, or something in-between--but he wasn't about to find out either. "Okay." he replies. "I'm right here."

She leans away from Keith to grab onto Lance for the second time, resting her head against his chest instead of burying her face. Besides a few hiccups, her breath evens out and he mimics what Keith had done earlier, combing his hands gently through her hair.

"... I think she fell asleep," Lance says, after a few minutes of silence. He feels Keith let out a sigh of relief.

"Okay. Think you can carry her back?"

Lance goes to stand up, but the movement makes her whine in her sleep as her fingers cling to him tighter. He shakes his head.

"Not a good idea. I don't wanna wake her up again. What if she starts crying?"

Keith sighs. "You can leave her in here, then? I don't mind sleeping with her for tonight."

"She's got a grip on me tighter than those black skinny jeans you wear." Lance replies, shaking his head again. Keith scowls at the analogy.

"Hey." he snaps, and then pinches the bridge of his nose. "So… What do we do."

Lance chews his bottom lip. Corrinne breathes evenly in his arms, completely unaware of the total stress she was causing the two of them. "Uh. I mean, I could just lay down. She said not to leave, right? So if she wakes up and one of us isn't there, she might freak out."

Keith considers this. "Oh,"

Lance is really glad it's dark in Keith's room, because he's sure his face is turning a very interesting color of red. "Yeah. I mean, just for one night, for Cora. We should be able to fit if we sleep on our sides."

"Yeah." Keith says, and then clears his throat. "I mean, yeah. That's fine."

He wonders if Keith's face is just as red as hisfeels. Scooting very, very carefully, he places his back against the wall and lays Corrinne down next to him, curled up into his shirt. She makes a contented noise, and Keith lays down beside her.

In the dark, like this, Lance can just barely make out Keith's eyes watching him. He gives him a grin, hoping it's not as nervous as it seems.

"'Night, Keith."

"Yeah, 'night."


	5. klance 5

Pidge comes out of her room just in time to see Lance, Keith, and Corrinne exit from Keith's. Lance and Corrinne are still in pajamas, hair messy and disheveled, with the latter still asleep and being carried in Keith's arms.

Pidge makes direct eye contact with the two of them. Time freezes in the hallway.

"I want you guys to cover my next week of dishwashing duty." she says. Lance scowls and Keith protests.

"But--"

"Aweek."

Keith stomps toward Lance's room, carrying Corrinne away. Lance glares daggers at Pidge.

"You know blackmail is real, real low for aDefender of the Universe." he says, tsking and shaking his head. Pidge stares at him flatly.

"I'll make it two weeks--"

"Okay, one week it isseeya Pidge!" he waves, ducking into his room.

Pidge snickers to herself. Like everyone didn't already know.

It's been an entire week since Corrinne was first found in the castle.

A week that had started out tense, awkward and unbearable, and ended up with mass games of patty-cake in the common area. If Lance ever dares to say that it's boring being a Paladin, he's aliar. The evolution he's seen over the past week is almost phenomenal. He never would have thought that a six year old intruder could bring them all closer.

(He never would have thought that a six year old could somehow rope him into the same bed as Keith every night,either,but that's a thing that happened too.)

Corrinne is sitting on Keith's lap as he wrangles her hair into a ponytail while Lance looks through Altean movies like he has any idea what they're about. How's he supposed to know what's child-appropriate when he can't even read the titles?

As Lance is pondering whether or not he should ask Coran for help, Corrinne hums.

"Um, wanna know something funny? One time Alek tried to put food goo in the movie player and got inso much trouble." she giggles at her own memory as Lance and Keith look at each other, frowning.

"... Who's Alek?" Keith asks, because in the week she's been here he's never heard her talk aboutanyoneelse. She tilts her head slightly at the question, short ponytail swaying with the movement.

It's incredibly cute. Lance thinks that Keith did anexcellentjob.

"Um… My brother." she answers. Lance blinks, abandoning the Altean movies for the moment.

"You have a brother?" as if swallowing the fact that he hadonefuture kid with Keith wasn't enough, now he hastwo. She nods. "Wait, why didn't you mention this before?"

She shrugs. "'Cause… He's not here?"

Well. It's hard to argue with that logic.

"He's a big crybaby," she says, rolling her eyes, "And he always talks about how cool he is. He isn't cool though, 'cause um, one time I watched him get a papercut and start crying."

Keith did a very poor job of trying to hide his snicker. "Oh, wow. That soundsfamiliar."

Corrinne tips her head back to look at Keith from his lap. They give each other matching knowing smiles.

"Um, first off, I resent that. Secondly, maybe you should be a little nicer to your brother," he says, approaching them. He stands in front of them and crosses his arms, raising an eyebrow.

"Iamnice," Corrinne insists. Keith gives out another chuckle.

Lance fake-glares at him.

"Keith, you're a bad parent. What do you think, Cora?"

She shakes her head, smiling. Lance pretends to be shocked, placing a hand over his chest.

"What? You're taking his side? I can't believe it, betrayed by my own…"

He spins around on his heel and, dramatically, falls backward onto both Corrinne and Keith.

The reaction is instant. Corrinne screeches "no!" and tries to scramble away, to no avail. Keith wheezes as he's crushed under both the weight of Corrinne and Lance, completely pinned down.

"Oof--Jesus, Lance--" he complains, but his words are drowned out by Corrinne's laughter as she tries to squirm her way out from the pile. Lance shifts a little more weight onto her, and she squeals.

"What have I ever done to deserve to be so, so--Foresaken!" he says, heaving out a dramatic sigh. Corrinne laughs some more, still wiggling around between the Keith and Lance sandwich.

Hunk chooses right then to walk into the room.

"Hey guys, we just got back from that planet--" he cuts himself off as he takes in the scene. Corrinne waves at him, barely visible under Lance's jacket. "Aw. Having a bonding dog-pile?"

"I'm dying." is Keith's response.

"Rest in pieces." Lance says.

Finally Keith manages to sit up, pushing the other two off of him. Corrinne rolls to the side, giggling when she sees Lance, who's pretending to be dead.

"You guys are so cute," Hunk comments, still standing in the entryway. Keith goes red, watching as Corrinne experimentally pokes Lance's "dead" body. He comes back to life, grabbing each side of his jacket and enveloping her into it as she yells and laughs.

"So how'd the trip go," Keith starts, trying to be as casual as possible to will the pink in his face away. Hunk gives him a thumbs-up.

"Oh, went awesome! As it turns out, that planet is now like some kind of massive trading post, so we got almost everything we need in one trip! Guess that Altean data is alittleout of date. Big surprise there. Anyway, we're going to cut down the estimated time by like, half." Hunk switches his attention to Corrinne, who's peeking out at him from under Lance's jacket. "That means we should be able to getyouback home in a week. Maybe even less."

She gives him a huge smile.

(And Lance would never admit it--not out loud, at least--but there's a deep sinking feeling when he realizes she'll be gone soon, and honestly?

Lance will miss her.)

It's a couple days later, and Corrinne's asleep on the couch.

Lance takes his jacket off and lays it over her, because there isn't a blanket nearby so it's the closest thing around. He steps back and looks at her, smiling playing at his lips.

Pidge and Hunk found the final piece they were looking for on a planet they had stopped by earlier. All that was left was putting the thing together.

Allura, Shiro, and Coran were glad to be able to get back to Voltron business. Hunk and Pidge were happy they were able to piece together the advanced instructions left for them. Corrinne herself was happy to be able to get back to her family.

(Her real family, Lance reminds himself. She might call himPapa, but she probably wasn't evenbornyet.)

He hears footsteps approaching, and turns his head to look behind him. Keith walks up, silently, pausing beside him and looking down at Corrinne.

Keith. The only person that he didn't know how they felt about her departure wasKeith.

"Are you going to miss her?" Keith asks, voice just barely above a whisper. Neither of them want to wake her. "I talked to Pidge earlier. She said to expect about three more days."

"Yeah," Lance replies. They aren't looking at each other, just at her. "Yeah, I am."

"She can't stay here." Keith replies, matter-of-fact. Lance knows this. He sighs.

"I hope the future is more stable," he says. "Earth isn't destroyed, or taken over, or anything at least. She said we go there on vacation."

They stand there in silence for a moment.

"Let's take them to Disney World. I've never been." Keith says. Lance looks at him in surprise.

"Yeah? Well after we save the universe, we'll be heroes. I bet we'll get free admission into any park we wanted. We could visit all the Disney resorts." he nudges Keith, getting him to smile.

"We can have a movie night and watch actual Earth movies." Keith says. Lance laughs.

"Oh,hellyes."

There's another pause.

"I'll miss her too." Keith's voice is even quieter than it was before. "I had a lot of fun while she was here. Even if she hated us in the beginning."

"I think she was probably just freaked out. Imagine seeing your parents all young, before you were even born? I'd probably avoid them too." he chuckles. "Pidge told me she thought she was going to get in trouble. Maybe she was avoiding us because of that."

"Maybe," Keith agrees.

Their hands brush each other.

And Lance doesn't know who does it first--ifeither of them did it first, maybe it was a mutual thing--but their fingers intertwine.

Then it's just them, holding hands with nobody else around, nobody else but their sleepingsomeday daughter. It's happening tomorrow. Hunk and Pidge confirmed earlier that it was all ready to go. They were only waiting an extra day for Lance and Keith's sakes.

"You doing okay?" Keith asks, in the dark. They're laying in Lance's bed this time, Corrinne asleep between them. Lance nods.

"I will be," he answers, honestly. "What about you?"

"Yeah." Keith replies.

There's silence for a moment.

"Can I make a confession?" Lance asks. Keith nods. "I've been having an easier time sleeping since… This." he makes a hand-gesture to all three of them.

Keith nods again.

"... Me too." he says. Lance's heart jumps into his throat.

"Would you mind if we kept doing this?" he asks. His voice is even softer than it was before. "Even after she leaves."

Keith chews the bottom of his lip, and Lance goes to backtrack. "I mean, if it's weird we don't--"

"No." Keith cuts him off. "No. I want to. It… Helps me, too."

Lance smiles, his bright wide smile, teeth visible in the darkness. "Thanks, Keith."

Pidge runs a hand through her hair.

"I wish we could test it," she says outloud to the group, "But this thing is one-way only. When Corrinne goes, it goes with her."

It's not a big, hulking time machine like Lance expects. It's smaller, built for someone exactly Corrinne's size. Made for her. Lance's mouth feels dry.

"You aren't sure it'll work?" he asks, gripping Corrinne's hand a little bit tighter. "That's not exactly comforting, Pidge."

Keith is on the opposite side of Corrinne, holding her other hand. He doesn't say anything, but his eyes narrow. Pidge sighs.

"I didn'tsaythat, first of all." she states, crossing her arms in front of her. "And I was just following instructions, so if you're going to yell at anyone yell at future me."

"I can't yell at future you, Pidge, duh." Lance says. Pidge shrugs.

"So then you can't yell at me either. Hunk, fire it up?" she looks over at him as he gives her a thumbs up, before turning back toward the group. "You guys have about five minutes to say your goodbyes."

Lance and Keith let go of her hands and take a step back as Allura approaches first.

"You're a very smart, beautiful girl, Corrinne, and I had a lot of fun with you these last two weeks." she pulls her in for a hug, and Lance thinks he might see her tear up for a minute. "I can't wait to see you again someday."

"Thank you, 'Lura. Um, do you wanna know a secret?"

Allura smiles slightly in confusion as Corrinne leans into her ears and whispers something. Lance has no idea what it is, but when she pulls away Allura is about as red as Keith's lion.

"O-Oh." she says, looking shocked. "I… Thank… You. For telling me that." she clears her throat as she stands up. Corrinne nods.

"You're welcome. I just don't know how they get it out of your belly!"

If it's even possible, Allura flusheseven more. All of the Paladins stare at her, eyebrows raised.

"Ah, um, Shiro! Why don't you go next."

He sends her a confused look, but obliges nonetheless. Bending down to Corrinne's level, Shiro grins.

"It was nice to meet you, Corrinne. It's no wonder you're so awesome, with two dads like that." he looks up and gives Keith and Lance a wink. They both flush. "Stay outta trouble, okay?"

Corrinne throws her arms around his neck. "Okay, Uncle Shiro. You'll see me again someday!"

"Yeah, I will." he smiles at her and stands up.

Coran is already standing behind him, waiting. Shiro steps aside.

"You know, I think they named you after me!" he says. She gives him a secretive smile. "Well, either that or that's a funny coincidence." he winks.

"It was a pleasure to meet you, Corrinne. I've never gotten to see an Earthling child this close-up before, and I'm glad that they're just as enjoyable to be around as they are when they get older." he bends down and gives her a brief hug. "I'm sure someday you'll be an excellent member of the team."

"Bye, Coran." she says. He nods.

"Goodbye, Corrinne."

Pidge walks over and ruffles her hair, messing it all up. Corrinne giggles as she attempts to soothe it down again. Pidge bends down.

"I know Shiro said to stay outta trouble, but you have to keep these two out of trouble too." she looks directly up at Keith and Lance as she says it. Lance sticks his tongue out at her. "See what I mean?"

Corrinne giggles. "Um, I'll do my best."

"Heck yeah you will." she puts her hand up for a high-five, which Corrinne eagerly gives her. Pidge stands back up and waves Hunk over.

Hunk looks at Lance and Keith. "We've only got a couple minutes left, so I'll make it quick."

He turns toward Corrinne-- and promptly picks her up and squeezes her.

"Uncle Hunk! I'mdying!" she complains, squirming in his grasp. He lets her go, dropping her back to her feet. She takes a deep breath.

"Tell future me that past me says he owes you ice-cream.Realice-cream." he clarifies. Corrinne's eyes sparkle. "Gonna miss you, kid."

"See you soon, Uncle Hunk." she says.

And then it's just Lance and Keith.

They nod at each other, and then crouch down at the same time in front of her. She runs into their arms as they hold them out.

"Hey, Cora," Lance says when she pulls back. He's trying his hardest to keep his voice level. Don't cry in front of the kid,don't cry in front of the kid. "You tell future me that we got the video, and I amverypleased with how well I've aged."

Keith glares at him, before turning his attention back to her. "Tell Alek we said hi."

She nods.

"Tell future Pidge and Hunk thanks, too." Lance says. "For the instructions, and for also making the invention in the first place." he pinches her cheek. "Never would have met you without it."

She squirms away, crinkling up her nose. Keith chuckles.

"Hey. We're gonna miss you."

She goes in for another hug.

"Thirty more seconds!" Hunk calls out. Lance feels his stomach drop. He swallows back the lump in his throat as he holds her tighter. Finally, she pulls away to give each of them a kiss on the cheek.

"Love you Papa. Love you Daddy." she says, grinning brightly. They stand up, holding her hands.

"Fifteen seconds." Hunk announces. They walk toward the machine.

"Love you too." Lance says. Keith kisses the top of her forehead. They release her hands to let her go, and she reaches out a fist toward Lance just before she steps into the contraption.

A fistbump.

Lance nearly bursts out into tears right then and there. Instead, he gently presses his fist to hers and gives her a blurry wink.

She waves at everyone else, too, stepping into the machine.

"Bye!" she says. Pidge instructs Keith and Lance to take a step back. They do.

For a moment, nothing happens. One second she's still there, waving at everyone, and then the next--

She's gone, machine and all.

Lance was sort of a wreck for a couple days afterward.Immediatelyafterward, he had sobbed into Hunk's shirt for at least an hour.

He was doing better now, though. After all, they had auniverseto save.

Allura calls Lance and Keith together about a week after Corrinne leaves. She smiles when she sees them both, and Lance realizes that this isn't about how he was totally messing around with his blaster the other day and might have shot a hole through one of them castle walls.Good.

"I got another transmission today," she starts, "and I thought you two might want to see it."

Before they can ask any questions, she starts the playback.

It's Corrinne, and another kid Lance doesn't know that looks a lot like her. She smiles at the camera.

"Hi, past Papa and Daddy. Um, Pidge said we should make this video to let you know I'm okay. So, um, I'm okay!" she waves. The kid next to her waves too.

"Hi!" he says, voice bright. Corrinne looks at him.

"This is Alek." she says, and oh. Duh. Lance can't believe he didn't make that connection sooner. "He's annoying."

"I'mnot annoying," Alek shoots back. He looks into the camera, posing, resting his chin on his hand. "I'm…The best."

Lance gapes just as Keith busts out laughing. Even Allura can't help a small giggle. The video continues, Corrinne making a very Keith face and rolling her eyes.

"Um, I hope you remembered the Hanky-Panky clapping game we played so that um, someday we can play it together again! Pidge said that this video can't be very long, so I'm gonna end here."

But before she switch the video off, a familiar face appears from off-screen.

"What are you two doing? Pidge told you not to mess with her stuff," he warns. He especially looks at Corrinne when he says this. She shrinks down a little bit.

"Um, but Pidge said we could! We're making a video to send to Papa and you in the past!" she says. Keith frowns, and then looks up at the camera.

"Oh." a thoughtful pause. "Well… Then, thank you. For getting her back home."

And then he winks.

Future Keithwinks.

"Daddy!" Alek shouts, alarmed, "What's wrong with your eye!"

"What? Nothing's wrong with my--"

The video cuts off just before he can finish. They stand there, the three of them, in silence for a moment.

It distinctly reminds Lance of the very same thing happening a few weeks ago.

"That's all." Allura says, being the first to speak up. "Feel free to tell the others she made it back safely, if you want. I just thought you two might appreciate seeing the video."

They nod and think her, leaving the room together. Keith turns to head the opposite way--probably toward the training deck, judging by direction--but Lance stops him by grabbing his arm.

"Wha--"

Keith doesn't get to finish his question because Lance pins him against the wall and presses their lips together. The words die in his throat, as he melts into the kiss.

After a few more moments, Lance pulls back, breathing heavily. "Let's go make twins."

Keith blinks at him, bewildered, before something goes off in his mind. He scowls.

"Lance, for the last time, they'readopted--!"


End file.
